Berlin and Dublin-based Greenman has made a pledge for all properties in its Greenman OPEN fund that they will remain viable for existing tenants, regardless of changes to store concepts and operational strategies even beyond the existing lease terms.
'This is particularly important for our supermarket occupiers like Edeka, Kaufland and REWE, who typically sign long-term 20-year leases and many of whom are at the forefront of the drive to ever greater sustainability', said Johnnie Wilkinson, CEO.
To achieve this, Greenman’s board of directors has recently approved the Net Zero plan detailing measures needed to reduce the portfolio’s net carbon emissions to zero by 2050, targeting an average reduction of around 3,500 tonnes of carbon emissions a year.
Said Wilkinson, 'We operate a buy and hold strategy for the properties in our fund and intend to keep them for their whole life, well beyond 2050. Where properties don’t consistently meet our performance expectations, we’ll look to recycle and re-purpose them, rather than demolish them.'
This means that Greenman will focus heavily on building and systems improvements, aiming to reduce energy consumption to below 161KWh/m2 let area for all existing grocer occupied properties.
Businesses from across the Greenman group will joint-venture with the OPEN fund to provide to meet its sustainability goals. Greenman Energy is installing photovoltaic solar panels on all suitable roof areas and car port parking spaces. These are expected to generate more than 10GWh/year across the portfolio by 2050. Energy will also install Hyper Chargers - fast car charging stations - with enough capacity to charge around 6 mln electric vehicles per year or 245 per location a day.
To offset the impact of the capital committed to the net zero plan on investor returns, Greenman said all joint venture projects will generate additional income for investors and have set themselves the objective that at least 5% of the fund’s revenue in 2025 will be derived from non-rental activities.
It is hoped a high percentage of all equity contributed to the initiative will result in either direct additional income or have a positive impact either directly or indirectly on the fund’s NAV.
Wilkinson added: 'We’re committed to ensuring that OPEN’s portfolio becomes fully aligned with the Paris Agreement. A core principle of the European Green deal is the "decoupling of economic growth from resource use" and we believe that the net zero pathway will not only achieve this, but will also provide a route map for other owners and occupiers invested in our asset type.'
'We’re aware that we’ve set ourselves an ambitious target but we firmly believe our plan has the potential to make a lasting and positive impact upon the communities in which OPEN’s properties are located and to the approximately 280,000 people who visit these stores daily.'
Greenman clainms to be Europe’s only fully integrated grocery-anchored real estate investment fund manager. As of August 2022, its flagship fund whose strategy is focused on properties located exclusively in Germany, has reached €1.09 bn and over €52 mln annual rental income from 76 properties.